The Effectiveness of Reminiscence Therapy on Alleviating Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: Depression is one of the most common problems faced by older adults. Reminiscence therapy, defined as using the recall of past events, feelings, and thoughts facilitating pleasure, is one type of psychotherapy that could alleviate depressive feelings among older adults, improve their quality of life, and help them live independently. Reminiscence therapy originated from geriatric psychiatry, and is an effective non-pharmacological intervention that could be structured or unstructured and be conducted individually or in a group. The current systematic review was designed to summarize and review existing evidence on the effect of reminiscence therapy on depression in older adults.Methods: We conducted a systematic review from January 2000 to Mar 2021 using 10 electronic databases in English and Chinese languages, including Medline, Embase, Cinahl, PsychInfo, Cochrane, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Science Direct, CNKI, and WANFANG. We excluded studies that didn't use randomized controlled trials (RCT) from the meta-analysis. The selected studies were scored using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. The RevMan 5.0 was used in subgroup analysis depending on how the interventions were classified.Results: We extracted 527 studies based on keyword searches, of which 10 RCTs met inclusion criteria were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis yielded high heterogeneity, and the analyses of significant subgroups showed that reminiscence therapy has a significant effect on relieving depressive symptoms in older adults. Reminiscence therapy benefits older adults with chronic illness and those on antidepressants as well. The effect and cost-effectiveness of group reminiscence therapy were higher than individual reminiscence therapy. And some specific types of group reminiscence therapy have a significant effect on improving depression and secondary outcomes, including life satisfaction. Although the effectiveness of structured and unstructured group reminiscence on depression has no significant differences according to current evidence, the structured therapy is more replicable, generalizable, and user-friendly due to its detailed protocol for new therapists. Furthermore, reminiscence therapy is more effective for older women and older adults with more severe depressive symptoms.Conclusion: Reminiscence therapy significantly increased older adults' remission from depression and quality of life immediately after the intervention. However, the evidence-based protocol and implementation of reminiscence interventions need to be further developed and standardized to facilitate global use. Moreover, it remains unclear on the long-term effect of reminiscence therapy. Based on the limitations of the current study, more rigorous evidence is needed from studies with large sample sizes, RCT design, and longer follow-up periods. Future studies could also explore the effect of different types of reminiscence therapy. Furthermore, qualitative data should be included to better understand older adults' narrative and experiences with reminiscence therapy. Future studies could also investigate the impact of reminiscence therapy on older relatives as a part of outcome measure to explore the efficacious mechanism of reminiscence therapy in alleviating older adults' depressive symptoms.

Effect of Group Reminiscence Therapy on the Loneliness, Depression and Life Satisfaction of the Elderly who living in Nursing Home: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The results confirm the hypothesis that "group reminiscence therapy has an effect on decreasing depression level of elderly in nursing home. " This finding is consistent with the findings of pre-existing research and systematic rewiev studies on the efficacy of reminiscence therapies on the rate of depression in the elderly people (22,24,29,30).…”

Effectiveness of the Biography and Life Storybook for Nursing Home Residents: A Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Our analysis showed that the 12-week BLSB intervention resulted in a significant decrease in depression scores among the intervention group compared to the control group based on the GDS-15 depression scores. This result was consistent with several systematic reviews that reported a small to medium effect of BLSB in reducing depressive symptoms among the general older adult populations [8,16,17]. Depression has been considered a major health risk among the older adult population due to their increasing vulnerabilities to physical and mental decline.…”

“…Our study also found that BLSB effectively promoted life satisfaction among nursing home residents. This finding was consistent with two reviews that reported a significant pooled effect favoring the reminiscence-based intervention over control [16,17]. In addition, Tam et al reported no differences in the BLSB effect on life satisfaction between the type of sessions (individual versus group) [17].…”

“…One possible reason for the significance of our results may be the time and effort spent to assist the subjects in recalling positive memories and integrating them into a personal collection. Through the process of recall, collection, and sharing of one's memories and artifacts, the subjects were given greater opportunities to develop "connections" with staff and other residents, thus improving their sense of self-worth and perceived quality of life [16,23].…”

Psycho-Religious Therapy improving the Quality of Life of the Elderly in Nursing Homes

“…Affirmative reminiscence therapy can improve the quality of life of the elderly. This therapy is a psychotherapy-based therapy by exploring pleasant memories; then, the memories serve to increase the self-esteem and self-satisfaction of the elderly which can further improve their quality of life of the elderly [8].…”